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EJToday: Top Headlines

EJToday is SEJ's selection of new and outstanding stories on environmental topics in print and on the air, updated every weekday. SEJ also offers a free e-mailed digest of the day's EJToday postings, called SEJ-beat. SEJ members are subscribed automatically, but may opt out here. Non-members may subscribe here. EJToday is also available via RSS feed. Please see Editorial Guidelines for EJToday content.

"A proposed copper-nickel mine in northeast Minnesota would generate water pollution for up to 500 years and require billions of dollars in long-term cleanup costs, state regulators have concluded as they near a key stage in the project’s review."

"RICHMOND, Va. — Opponents of opening the George Washington National Forest to fracking for natural gas released a report Tuesday that they say proves the drilling practice would be harmful to the largest federal forest on the East Coast."

"FirstEnergy Corp said on Monday a small area of degradation found in the steel containment liner in one of the reactors at Pennsylvania's Beaver Valley nuclear power plant poses no harm to the public, workers or the environment."

"NEW ORLEANS -- Lawyers for BP Plc and the federal government sparred on Monday over the methods competing teams of scientists used to estimate the size of the company's 2010 oil spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico."

"The European Union’s top antitrust enforcer on Thursday threatened to formally charge the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom with restricting trade and price gouging, raising the stakes in a two-year investigation that has already created tensions with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin."

"The giants of the tobacco industry know what it’s like to face heavy government regulation. So as the makers of Marlboro, Newport and Camel enter the booming market for electronic cigarettes, they are pressing to keep their new products free of such strict oversight."

"Washington state is the next battleground in an ongoing effort by food activists to get products containing genetically engineered ingredients labeled. California voters rejected a similar initiative 53% to 47% in a bruising and expensive election in 2012."

How did a narrative almost opposite to the scientific consensus that human activities are causing climate change get started? Misinformation was spread by climate skeptics, aided by journalists and scientists themselves.

"KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A tornado that ripped through Nebraska, injuring 15 people and flattening buildings, may have reached a wind velocity of up to 200 miles per hour (320 kph), the National Weather Service said on Saturday."

"When senior scientist Walter Tamosaitis warned in 2011 about fundamental design flaws at the nation's largest facility to treat radioactive waste in Hanford, Wash., he was assigned to work in a basement room without office furniture or a telephone. On Wednesday, Tamosaitis, an employee of San Francisco-based URS Corp., was laid off from his job after 44 years with the company."